Always render collections, just don't always write them

lib/jekyll/document.rb

@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ module Jekyll
     #
     # Returns the permalink or nil if no permalink was set in the data.
     def permalink
-      data && data['permalink']
+      data && data.is_a?(Hash) && data['permalink']
     end
 
     # The computed URL for the document. See `Jekyll::URL#to_s` for more details.
@@ -192,12 +192,16 @@ module Jekyll
     #
     # Returns a Hash representing this Document's data.
     def to_liquid
+      if data.is_a?(Hash)
         Utils.deep_merge_hashes data, {
           "content"       => content,
           "path"          => path,
           "relative_path" => relative_path,
           "url"           => url
         }
+      else
+        data
+      end
     end
 
     # The inspect string for this document.

lib/jekyll/site.rb

@@ -111,13 +111,6 @@ module Jekyll
       end
     end
 
-    # The list of collections to render.
-    #
-    # The array of collection labels to render.
-    def to_render
-      @to_render ||= (config['render'] || Array.new)
-    end
-
     # Read Site data from disk and load it into internal data structures.
     #
     # Returns nothing.
@@ -240,8 +233,8 @@ module Jekyll
     def render
       relative_permalinks_deprecation_method
 
-      to_render.each do |label|
+      collections.each do |label, collection|
-        collections[label].docs.each do |document|
+        collection.docs.each do |document|
           document.output = Jekyll::Renderer.new(self, document).run
         end
       end
@@ -411,9 +404,9 @@ module Jekyll
     end
 
     def documents
-      collections.reduce(Set.new) do |docs, (label, coll)|
+      collections.reduce(Set.new) do |docs, (_, collection)|
-        if to_render.include?(label)
+        if collection.write?
-          docs.merge(coll.docs)
+          docs.merge(collection.docs)
         else
           docs
         end

test/test_collections.rb

@@ -107,6 +107,25 @@ class TestCollections < Test::Unit::TestCase
     end
   end
 
+  context "with a collection with metadata" do
+    setup do
+      @site = fixture_site({
+        "collections" => {
+          "methods" => {
+            "foo" => "bar",
+            "baz" => "whoo"
+          }
+        }
+      })
+      @site.process
+      @collection = @site.collections["methods"]
+    end
+
+    should "extract the configuration collection information as metadata" do
+      assert_equal @collection.metadata, {"foo" => "bar", "baz" => "whoo"}
+    end
+  end
+
   context "in safe mode" do
     setup do
       @site = fixture_site({